Method for manufacturing cutlery

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing a cutlery, the method comprising: blanking a steel sheet to obtain a blank with an appearance corresponding to a desired shape of the cutlery, wherein the cutlery has head and handle portions; rolling the head portion of the blank to stretch the head portion; performing single-trimming of a combination of the stretched head portion and the handle portion; and performing single-forming of a combination of the trimmed head and handle portions.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean patent application no. 10-2016-0014972 filed on Feb. 5, 2015, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure related to a method for manufacturing a cutlery, and, in particular, to a method for manufacturing a cutlery using a monolithic mold to produce the cutlery with a highly precise dimension and a good surface quality and thus a high product yield, and with a natural overall appearance, and with a variety of designs.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The cutlery may include a spoon, pork, etc. and may be made of a stainless steel material due to a good corrosion resistance for sanitary.

FIG. 1A shows a perspective view of a spoon as one example of the cutlery. FIG. 1B illustrates a flow chart of a conventional method for manufacturing the spoon.

As shown in FIG. 1A, a spoon 1 includes a bowl portion 2 to receive therein a food and a handle portion 3 for grip. In the conventional method for manufacturing the spoon 1, processes for manufacturing the bowl portion 2 and handle portion 3 are separated from each other, as shown in FIG. 1B.

First, a stainless steel sheet is blanked to form a blank having an appearance similar to a desired shape of the spoon 1 including the bowl portion 2 and handle portion 3 (S101). In this connection, the stainless steel sheet is cut out to acquire the blank with the initial shape.

Next, the bowl portion of the blank acquired at the S101 is subjected to a rolling operation S102. In this connection, the bowl portion of the blank is stretched.

Thereafter, the handle portion of the blank acquired at the S101 is subjected to a forming operation S103. In this connection, the handle portion of the blank may be formed with a decoration formed therein.

After this, the bowl portion stretched at the S102 is subjected to a trimming operation S104. In this connection, the bowl portion stretched by the rolling operation is cut to obtain a round contour shape substantially corresponding to a desired contour shape of the bowl portion of the spoon.

Next, the trimmed bowl portion of the spoon is subjected to a forming operation S105. In this connection, the cut bowl portion with the desired round contour shape is curved to receive a food therein.

Then, the resulting product may be subjected to a finishing operation including a polishing or plating. In this connection, when the cutlery is a fork, a prong trimming operation is added to the process for manufacturing the spoon, to obtain branched prongs.

However, in the above conventional method for manufacturing the spoon, the forming operation of the bowl portion 2 is separated from the forming operation of the handle portion 3. Further, the separate trimming operation of the bowl portion 2 is necessary after forming the handle portion 3. In this connection, two individual molds, that is, a mold for forming the bowl portion 2 and a mold for forming the handle portion 3 are required, leading to a high molding cost, and, further, to low workability.

Further, in this conventional method, the forming operations for the bowl portion 2 and handle portion 3 are individually carried out while an operator grips the workpiece by his hand. Thus, when the workpiece is incorrectly positioned, the forming operations may fail together with causing damages of the molds.

Furthermore, in this conventional method, a decoration with a sophisticated shape may be difficult to be created in the spoon product. Further, a decoration may be difficult to be created in a joint portion between the handle and bowl portions. Further, a step may be created at the joint portion, not to produce a smooth surface of the spoon. In particular, when the bowl portion 2 is trimmed after forming the handle portion 3, the formed handle portion 3 may be deformed, leading to a poor precision and surface quality, and, thus, a low yield. Further, it may be difficult to fabricate a separate mold for the trimming operation of the bowl portion.

Thus, there is a need for solving the above problems in terms of a machine, operator, cost, maintenance, yield, etc. due to the individual operations, specifically the individual forming operations for the bowl portion 2 and handle portion 3.

This “Background” section is provided for background information only. The statements in this “Background” section are not an admission that the subject matter disclosed in this “Background” section constitutes prior art to the present disclosure, and no part of this “Background” section may be used as an admission that any part of this application, including this “Background” section, constitutes prior art to the present disclosure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Considering the above need, the present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing the cutlery where a combination of head and handle portions is subjected to a single trimming operation, and, then, a single forming operation, thereby leading to a shortened manufacturing process, and an extended mold lifespan, and, hence, a lowered manufacturing cost, and to a high precision and yield and thus a good product quality and workability, and to making a product with a variety of designs.

One aspect of the present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing a cutlery, the method comprising: blanking a steel sheet to obtain a blank with an appearance corresponding to a desired shape of the cutlery, wherein the cutlery has head and handle portions; rolling the head portion of the blank to stretch the head portion; performing single-trimming of a combination of the stretched head portion and the handle portion; and performing single-forming of a combination of the trimmed head and handle portions.

In one embodiment, the cutlery is a spoon, and the head portion is a bowl portion.

In one embodiment, wherein the cutlery is a fork, and the head portion is a prong portion.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises, between the single trimming and the single forming, trimming the prong portion to obtain branched prongs.

In accordance with the present disclosure, instead of the separated operations for the handle and head portions, the combination of the head and handle portions is subjected to the single trimming operation, and, then, the single forming operation, thereby leading to a shortened manufacturing process, and an extended mold lifespan, and, hence, a lowered manufacturing cost, and to a high precision and yield and thus a good product quality and workability, and to making a product with a variety of designs.

In particular, the combination of the head and handle portions is subjected to the single trimming operation before being subjected to the forming operation. In other words, the combination of the head and handle portions is subjected to the single trimming operation while the head portion is stretched and flattened. Thus, a clean surface and a high precision dimension may be acquired. This may suppress a failure due to burrs on the surface. This may facilitate a polishing operation after the forming operation and/or reduce the polishing operation time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A brief description of each drawing is provided to more fully understand the drawings, which is incorporated in the detailed description of the disclosure.

FIG. 1A shows a perspective view of a spoon as one example of a cutlery.

FIG. 1B illustrates a flow chart of a conventional method for manufacturing a spoon.

FIG. 2 illustrates a flow chart of a method for manufacturing a spoon as one example of a cutlery in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 shows an exploded perspective view of an example of a monolithic mold for a forming operation of the method of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 shows intermediate products resulting from respective operations of the method of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of a method for manufacturing a fork as one example of a cutlery in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 shows an exploded perspective view of an example of a monolithic mold for a forming operation of the method of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 shows intermediate products resulting from respective operations of the method of FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Examples of various embodiments are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described further below. It will be understood that the description herein is not intended to limit the claims to the specific embodiments described. On the contrary, it is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

Example embodiments will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present disclosure, however, may be embodied in various different forms, and should not be construed as being limited to only the illustrated embodiments herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided as examples so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the aspects and features of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art.

It will be understood that, although the terms “first”, “second”, “third”, and so on may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another element, component, region, layer or section. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section described below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

It will be understood that when an element or layer is referred to as being “connected to”, or “coupled to” another element or layer, it can be directly on, connected to, or coupled to the other element or layer, or one or more intervening elements or layers may be present. In addition, it will also be understood that when an element or layer is referred to as being “between” two elements or layers, it can be the only element or layer between the two elements or layers, or one or more intervening elements or layers may also be present.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a” and “an” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “includes”, and “including” when used in this specification, specify the presence of the stated features, integers, s, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, s, operations, elements, components, and/or portions thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. Expression such as “at least one of” when preceding a list of elements may modify the entire list of elements and may not modify the individual elements of the list.

Spatially relative terms, such as “beneath,” “below,” “lower,” “under,” “above,” “upper,” and the like, may be used herein for ease of explanation to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element s or feature s as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or in operation, in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “below” or “beneath” or “under” other elements or features would then be oriented “above” the other elements or features. Thus, the example terms “below” and “under” can encompass both an orientation of above and below. The device may be otherwise oriented for example, rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations, and the spatially relative descriptors used herein should be interpreted accordingly.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms including technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this inventive concept belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. The present disclosure may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well-known process structures and/or processes have not been described in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present disclosure.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the method for manufacturing the cutlery in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in details with reference to attached drawings.

FIG. 2 illustrates a flow chart of a method for manufacturing a spoon as one example of a cutlery in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 3 shows an exploded perspective view of an example of a monolithic mold for a forming operation of the method of FIG. 2.

The method for manufacturing the spoon in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure may be carried out as shown in FIG.2.

First, a steel sheet is subjected to a blanking operation S201 to obtain a blank with an appearance similar to a desired shape of a spoon including bowl and handle portions. Then, a bowl portion of the blank is subjected to a rolling operation S202. Thus, the bowl portion is stretched.

In this connection, those blanking and rolling operations may be similar to those in the above-described conventional method for manufacturing the spoon.

After this, a combination of the bowl portion stretched by the rolling operation at the S202 and the handle portion of the blank is subjected to a single trimming operation S203.

Unlike the above-described conventional method where only the handle portion is individually subjected to the forming operation, in the present disclosure, trimming of the bowl portion stretched by the rolling operation along a bowl round contour is integrated with trimming of the handle portion along a handle elongate contour.

In this way, the combination of the bowl and handle portions is subjected to the single trimming operation before being subjected to the forming operation. In other words, the combination of the bowl and handle portions is subjected to the single trimming operation while the bowl portion is stretched and flattened. Thus, a clean surface and a high precision dimension may be acquired. This may suppress a failure due to burrs on the surface. This may facilitate a polishing operation after the forming operation and/or reduce the polishing operation time.

Subsequently, the combination of the trimmed bowl and handle portions is subjected to a single forming operation S204. In this connection, the trimmed bowl portion with the desired round contour is curved to receive a food therein, and, at the same time, a decoration is formed in the trimmed handle portion with the elongate contour. Optionally, the trimmed handle portion with the elongate contour may be concurrently bent if necessary.

The forming operation may employ a monolithic spoon mold as shown in FIG. 3. Using the monolithic spoon mold, a step may not be created at a joint portion between the bowl and handle portions during the forming operation. Further, this may reduce damaged portions of the handle portion. This may lead to an improved surface quality, and, thus, may suppress the decoration deformation, and may produce the resulting structure with an accurate dimension. This may simplify or eliminate a polishing operation after the forming operation. Further, this may allow much freedom of design choices.

FIG. 4 shows intermediate products resulting from respective operations of the method of FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 4, the most left, middle-left, middle-right, and most right intermediate products may correspond respectively to the blanking, rolling, trimming and forming operations S201 to S204.

Then, optionally, when desired based on a target spoon specification, the resulting product from the forming operation may be subjected to a polishing or plating operation in order to remove the burrs on the surface and/or create a gloss and/or to render a specific color.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of a method for manufacturing a fork as one example of a cutlery in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 shows an exploded perspective view of an example of a monolithic mold for a forming operation of the method of FIG. 5.

The method for manufacturing the fork in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure may be carried out as shown in FIG. 5.

First, a steel sheet is subjected to a blanking operation S501 to obtain a blank with an appearance similar to a desired shape of a fork including prong and handle portions. Then, a prong portion of the blank is subjected to a rolling operation S502. Thus, the prong portion is stretched.

After this, a combination of the prong portion stretched by the rolling operation at the S502 and the handle portion of the blank is subjected to a single trimming operation S503.

In this connection, the operations 501 to 503 may be respectively similar to the operations 201 to 203 of the method in FIG. 2.

Subsequently, the trimmed prong portion is subjected to a prong trimming operation S504 to obtain branched prongs.

Next, the combination of the prong and handle portions is subjected to a single forming operation S505. In this connection, the forming operation may employ a monolithic fork mold as shown in FIG. 6. This single forming operation S505 may be similar to the forming operation S204 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 shows intermediate products resulting from respective operations of the method of FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 7, the intermediate products from the most left side to the most right side may correspond respectively to the blanking, rolling, single-trimming, prong-trimming, single-forming operations S501 to S505.

Then, optionally, when desired based on a target fork specification, the resulting product from the forming operation may be subjected to a polishing or plating operation in order to remove the burrs on the surface and/or create a gloss and/or to render a specific color.

In accordance with the present disclosure, a human labor, and a manufacturing process time may reduce, and a mold lifespan may be extended. This may lead to a reduced manufacturing cost. Further, this may lead to improved workability and stable product quality.

The above description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of describing the general principles of exemplary embodiments, and many additional embodiments of this disclosure are possible. It is understood that no limitation of the scope of the disclosure is thereby intended. The scope of the disclosure should be determined with reference to the Claims. Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic that is described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for manufacturing a cutlery, the method comprising: blanking a steel sheet to obtain a blank with an appearance corresponding to a desired shape of the cutlery, wherein the cutlery has head and handle portions; rolling the head portion of the blank to stretch the head portion; performing single-trimming of a combination of the stretched head portion and the handle portion; and performing single-forming of a combination of the trimmed head and handle portions.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the cutlery is a spoon, and the head portion is a bowl portion.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the cutlery is a fork, and the head portion is a prong portion.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising, between the single trimming and the single forming, trimming the prong portion to obtain branched prongs. 